Drilling ban defended despite impact on jobs

Aug. 22, 2010 12:00 AMAssociated Press

WASHINGTON - A six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would directly put more than 9,000 people out of work and indirectly affect 14,000 other jobs, the nation's top drilling regulator estimates.

Michael Bromwich, in a memo sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on July 10, weighed the economic impact and alternatives to the ban in the wake of the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf. Salazar issued a moratorium in June, but a federal judge struck it down after oil- and gas-drilling interests argued it wasn't justified.

The Obama administration issued a new moratorium July 12 that stressed new evidence of safety concerns. The White House hopes the revised ban will pass court muster.

The moratoriums were put in place after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion April 20 that killed 11 people. Millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf after the rig sank.

Some energy experts, engineering consultants and Gulf Coast leaders have joined Big Oil to ask Salazar to change his mind. Drilling was safe before the BP spill, they said, and Gulf communities that depend on the industry are suffering unfairly.

Interior Department spokesman Matt Lee-Ashley noted that BP has agreed to set up a $100 million fund for affected rig workers.

"The moratorium is necessary and appropriate," Lee-Ashley said. "With that said, the worst-case economic-impact estimates from three months ago have not been realized. The reality on the ground suggests that the impacts are less than we initially projected as a potential worst-case scenario."